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Introduction to Linguistics? | ||
Tags: Linguistics | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Retinend Triglot Senior Member SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4097 days ago 283 posts - 557 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Arabic (Written), French | Message 9 of 32 28 September 2013 at 8:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The first post should have been without a doubt Steven Pinker's "The Language Instinct."
And also any of his other books on language. It's by now a classic of popular science writing and focuses on the story of the cognitive revolution and the beginnings of generative grammar. Another very accessible book I would recommend is "Metaphors We Live By." It's a book about semantics, but unlike most semantic arguments it'll change the way you look at language. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 6945 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 10 of 32 01 October 2013 at 4:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
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See here for a free downloadable manuscript of "Linguistics for Students of Asian and African Languages" by Halvor Eifring & Rolf Theil and used by students at the University of Oslo in 2005.
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| alang Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7010 days ago 563 posts - 757 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 11 of 32 02 October 2013 at 2:04am | IP Logged | |||||
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When I took an Introductory Linguistics class a couple years ago. The professor recommended a book titled "Language" by Leonard Bloomfield, even though the class was already using a different text. I presume it was for students who wanted to delve into Linguistics further. If you are open to video, then the Teaching Company offers two video courses. One is titled "The Story of Human Language" and "Understanding Linguistics: The Science of Language". There is some overlap, but not a lot. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sebed Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4528 days ago 12 posts - 29 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Korean, Esperanto | Message 12 of 32 02 October 2013 at 1:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The Cambridge Encylopaedia of Language by David Crystal
Thoroughly recommended. It's A4-sized and over 500 pages long. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| pfn123 Senior Member Australia Joined 4872 days ago 171 posts - 291 votes Speaks: English* | Message 13 of 32 03 October 2013 at 7:07am | IP Logged | |||||
Cugston doesn't recognise your head-full of information and ideas unless you have a shiny certificate to go with it. Thank goodness for Photoshop, lol. But seriously...
I'd say start at your local library. Read whatever general lingustic books they have. This will give you a feel for the discipline (and it's a vast one), and suggest which areas you might have a particular interest in pursuing. These books will have bibliographies and suggested reading lists. Then, follow your interests. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| dmaddock1 Senior Member United States Joined 5222 days ago 174 posts - 426 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Esperanto, Latin, Ancient Greek | Message 14 of 32 03 October 2013 at 2:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm an amateur in both linguistics and language learning so take my advice with a grain of salt, but for me learning the basics of phonology and philology (historical linguistics) has had very good returns on investment for my language learning. Judging from the mix of modern & classical languages on your profile, historical linguistics might be right up your alley too.
Unfortunately, I don't know of a great textbook that covers this. I emailed Professor Arguelles a while back asking for book recommendations and he had trouble as well. I'm currently taking a university class on philology and the professors have put together a hodge-podge of readings from various books and journals because no suitable textbook exists (in English anyway). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4440 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English | Message 15 of 32 04 October 2013 at 8:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
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We used George Yule's "The Study of Language" 3rd edition in our "Introduction to Linguistics" course.
I am also tempted to agree with dmaddock1 - knowing the basics of phonology and morphology is a huge help in learning languages. Certainly, my Spanish and Arabic benefitted from it. At least I had a lot of fun helping a friend (an Arabic native) with a phonology assignment which involved... Arabic. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4698 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 16 of 32 06 October 2013 at 2:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
Steven Pinker is a follower of Noam Chomsky, and as such the ideas in the book are controversial, and written for polemical purposes. It is written to prove his perspective right, and disprove other perspectives. For this reason, I don't think it would make a good starting place for a beginner to linguistics, because you would end up thinking one camp has all the answers. The book Datsunking1 mentioned is Language: The Basics, by R.L. Trask, which would probably be a better place to start. Once you understand the basic ideas, you will be more equipped to step into more controversial areas with your eyes open. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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